Gilgamesh : The Epic Of Gilgamesh

Justice is described as a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, fairness, or equity. The people of ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia also believed and relied on this concept. Rulers, if not fair and just, were often eliminated by their subjects or their enemies. There were many great kings and pharaohs of the ancient age that were just to their kingdoms, and these often went down in history. Yet, those kings and pharaohs who were blinded by their own selfishness often became just as famous. Two men, Akhenaten of ancient Egypt and Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, were such rulers. They were powerful and cunning individuals, yet they let their own selfish nature ruin the ability to be a great

Gilgamesh encounters Utnapishtim, a man who survives the great flood and receives immortality. Utnapishtim gives Gilgamesh eclectic tasks to achieve eternal life. The first task is to stay awake for seven days, which Gilgamesh is unable to accomplish. Feeling sorry, Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh a secret that if he finds the “plant that grows under the water… [it] restores his lost youth” (31). Gilgamesh lights up and ties rocks to his feet to sink down to search for the marvelous plant. Gilgamesh finds the ultimate boon. He is overjoyed and eager to bring the plant back to his homeland to restore the youth of all the men there. The refusal of the return occurs when, he was returning home and becomes careless and bathes in a nearby well of cool water, leaving the plant unattended. A snake suddenly appears and eats the plant, restoring the snake’s youth. Gilgamesh begins to weep upon seeing that he failed in his quest for immortality. Gilgamesh returns back to his homeland, Uruk, and engraves his story on a stone for everyone to see and

11). By announcing this, Gilgamesh realized that he too one day would be dead like Enkidu. In refusal to accept such a future, Gilgamesh began his quest for eternal life. To achieve it, he journeyed to find Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim and his family were the only survivors of a great flood wrought by the gods to destroy humanity. As a reward for their survival, the gods gave the family eternal life and sent them to live “...in a remote island paradise beyond the waters of death” (p. 12). Utnapishtim’s island corresponds to the situational archetype of a garden where death does not exist. In such a garden, beauty and innocence are unspoiled. When Gilgamesh finally met Utnapishtim, Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh the story of the great flood, and then he revealed to him the secret of eternal life by saying, “...it is a mystery of the gods that I am telling you. There is a plant which grows under the water… which restores… lost youth to a man” (p. 14). In telling Gilgamesh this information vital to his quest for everlasting life, Utnapishtim became a mentor. He also became a secondary form of divine help to Gilgamesh because Utnapishtim received his knowledge from the gods.

So, they put him through pain for so many days until he finally dies. His death changes Gilgamesh so much that he realizes he not the immortal god he thinks he is. This is show in this quote from the story “Hear me, great ones of Uruk, I weep for Enkidu, my friend, Bitterly moaning like a woman mourning I weep for my brother O Enkidu, my brother, You were the axe at my side, My hand's strength, the sword in my belt, The shield before me, He realizes that he is just like us a mortal mostly human being. Which lead to him searching for the one thing he now wants most in his life, Immortality. He goes on a quest to find him leads to him finding Utnapishtim. He tells Gilgamesh about the plant at the bottom of the river that will give him what he seeks, the key to immortality. When Gilgamesh retrieves it though, a snake comes up and eats the plant becoming immortal in the process. This means that he can no longer become immortal. He then comes home and becomes the good king and lives out the rest of his life until his death. This is shown in this quote from the story” The king has laid himself down and will not rise again, The Lord of Kullab will not rise again; He overcame evil, he will not come again; Though he was strong of arm he will not rise again”

Then, when he reaches Utnapishtim, he now recognizes that Utnapishtim does understand and appreciate him. Because of that, Gilgamesh in turn appreciates him for comprehending his loss. After leaving Utnapishtim’s abode, he returns to Uruk, the city of which he is king of, and asks a blind man if he had ever heard of his friend Enkidu. The old man shakes his head and turns away, and Gilgamesh interprets this as if the blind man says that “it is impossible to keep the names of friends whom we have lost” (Mason 81). Then, Gilgamesh decides that he will not continue to put his grief onto anyone else.

Gilgamesh answers that Enkidu’s fear of death deprives him of his might. At last Enkidu agrees to go with his friend. Gilgamesh then goes to the elders and they, like Enkidu, warn him of the perils he will encounter. Seeing his determination, the elders give him their blessing. Gilgamesh then goes to Ninsun and she also warns him of the great dangers, but to no avail.

Enkidu's death left Gilgamesh frightened and confused. The despair in his heart was so great that he could not rest; would he ever be at peace? He became terrified of his own death. Puzzled and searching for answers, Gilgamesh set out on a quest for Utnapishtim. It is on this great journey that Gilgamesh learns of a

Aruru creates Enkidu, an uncivilized wild man, and places him in the woods. There, Enkidu has several run-ins with a trapper who uses the same watering hole. Terrified, the trapper goes

At the start of The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is the arrogant ruler of the city Uruk. He is obsessed with immortality, which can be seen in the description of him at the epic’s beginning, “Seeking everywhere for eternal life” (Tablet I, 43). Because of his invincibility, Gilgamesh seems convinced that he is protected from death. However, he begins to realize his mortality following his friend, Enkidu, passing away. Relating Enkidu’s death to the possibility of his own, Gilgamesh states, “Shall I not die too? Am I not like Enkidu?” (Tablet IX, 3). This leads Gilgamesh to the decision to journey to speak with Utanapishtim, a god who was made immortal following the survival of a great flood, so as to discover the secret of immortality and how it may be achieved. When his efforts at achieving his own immortality are thwarted, Gilgamesh is humbled by his newfound fallibility. His journey to find a way to sustain life stripped him of his former glory, transforming him from the person he once was.

The Epic of Gilgamesh tells the story of Gilgamesh, King of the City State Uruk and a powerful demigod. In the beginning of his tale, Gilgamesh becomes obsessed with the idea of immortality in fame, and wishes to defeat a powerful ogre named Humbaba to be remembered forever by doing the impossible. However, accomplishing this task has little impact on the King after the death of his dear friend, Enkidu, sends Gilgamesh on a new quest to find true immortality. The King finds little success in this task, and returns home to his kingdom.

Gilgamesh is an ancient Mesopotamian hero, featured in the famous tale of “The Epic of Gilgamesh”, who embarks on a perilous quest for immortality. This idea, “…touches on the most fundamental questions of what it actually means to be human…” (Homer 33), and gives us light into the minds of the people during the era. Gilgamesh’s tale gives us a glimpse at how the people of that day viewed a “hero”, and allows us to reflect upon what we consider a “hero” today. Using the Epic Hero Cycle, I will analyze Gilgamesh’s life and journey and analyze why I feel that he is truly a hero.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a story about the adventures of Gilgamesh, and it is narrated through twelve tablets. According to Makin, it has a Sumerian origin, considered one of the earliest known literary writings, even it talks about the flood like in the Bible. Based to the definition given by the Oxford dictionaries, we can say that it is considered as an epic because it is a long poem, centered in a hero narrating his adventures, using god characters, and the hero faces obstacles.

Enkidu is a primary character in the epic, his death dramatically changes the personality of Gilgamesh. His metamorphosis and death makes evident the innate rhythm of life, which represents the link that he has with nature. With love, and self-realization, Enkidu eventually becomes a friend to Gilgamesh. Readers are able to see the merging of Gilgamesh’s divine stature with Enkidu’s wild nature, which in turn changes Enkidu from a simple beast to a figure that is larger than life (Harris 122). He essentially becomes an equal to Gilgamesh. Enkidu undergoes the following transformation:

In the epic Mahabharata, Yudhishthira gambles not just his fortune, brothers, and kingdom, but also his wife. Duryodhana, Yudhishthira’s cousin, invites him to play a dice game, knowing that gambling is Yudhishthira’s biggest weakness. During the dice game, Yudhishthira, leader of the Pandavas and future king, ends up losing everything that not just he had, but also everything his brothers and wife had as well. Yudhishthira kept losing during the game, but kept playing and gambling more and more until he had nothing else to gamble, not even himself. Moreover, he used his wife, Draupadi as the deal breaker without asking her after he gambled himself out. Then, he loses her and Duryodhana humiliates Draupadi. Yudhishthira, his brothers and Draupadi

A long time ago a god named Donn and a goddess named Danu were born. Donn and Danu had children that were caught in the middle of their parents and had no option of escaping.Brian was one of their sons who had decided it was time to split their parent up or else the death of him and his brothers would occur.It turned out that Danu loved her son so much that she let him cut her husband into nine pieces.Danu had been devastated and she had started to cry, she cried so much that a flood was creating.After this incident Danu was known as “Waters of Heaven”, the water had also moved the nine body pieces of Donn away. Then two magical acorns appeared the acorns grew into berry trees and the berries grew into people.As time went on the people became